Iraq is set to ban the popular navigation app Waze, which was founded in Israel. Communications Minister Mustafa Sanad announced the move on Tuesday. It has prompted discussions in Iraq over whether the country can build its own alternative and whether banning one app protects users’ location data.
The Ministry of Communications plans to block the use of Waze by the end of December, according to the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada. Sanad told the broadcaster Rudaw that it would take effect some time at the start of 2027. He made the announcement on the sidelines of the Hitex 2026 technology exhibition in Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Waze is a widely used navigation app. Hundreds of motorists, including taxi drivers, use it to get around. The service relies on users to report traffic jams, accidents and police checkpoints as they happen.
It was developed in Israel, and Google bought it in 2013 for nearly $1bn. Waze’s privacy policy lets it collect users’ locations, routes, destinations, search histories and device details, depending on their settings. Pooled across many users over time, such data have security value because they can reveal movement patterns, peak times and unusual changes.
Rudaw reported that the app has been the subject of security discussions in Iraq over its alerts being used to avoid checkpoints although Sanad did not link the ban to that issue. Iraq does not recognise Israel or have diplomatic relations with it and has formally been at war with it since 1948. A 2022 law criminalises any diplomatic, political, military, economic or cultural ties with Israel.
Its penalties include life imprisonment and the death penalty. It was passed by 275 votes in the 329-seat Council of Representatives. The law applies to all Iraqi citizens, state institutions and media as well as private companies and foreign entities operating in the country, including the Kurdish region.
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